Child Trends
May 1, 2013

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New Research: Evaluation of Family Finding Services

Ideally, children in foster care would have connections to adult relatives, and their parents would have the support of those relatives as they work to regain custody of their children. It's not always obvious, though, who or where those relatives are. The family finding model provides child welfare practitioners intensive search and engagement techniques to identify family and other adults close to a child in foster care, and to involve these adults in developing and carrying out a plan for the emotional and legal permanency of the child. In Client Voices: Youth, Parent, and Relative Perspectives on Family Finding, the fourth brief in a series, Child Trends authors capture the voices of participant youth, parents and relatives. Practitioners can use this feedback to develop or improve family finding services.

This series was supported by the Stuart Foundation and the United States Children's Bureau. 
 

Trend Lines Blog: Implementing Programs and Survey Response Rates 

Interview with Co-Editor of Applying Implementation Science in Early Childhood Programs and Systems
Even the best programs can fail if not implemented correctly.  In our blog, Dr. Tamara Halle, co-director of early childhood research at Child Trends, answers questions about the book she co-edited, Applying Implementation Science in Early Childhood Program and Systems. Implementation science focuses on how to make evidence-based practices work in the real world. And while early care and education is a field with a large number of programs, the application of implementation science in the field has been slow. This book is meant for program developers, researchers, and policymakers who want to make sure the systems they create or fund are implemented effectively.

Falling Response Rates to Social Surveys Americans are less willing to do social surveys these days. But who cares? In our blog, Dr. Kristin Anderson Moore, Child Trends' senior scholar and  co-director of youth development research, spells out why you should, if you care about children's well-being. Based on a Capitol Hill briefing last week, she summarizes reasons why response rates matter, along with tips on improving data quality while holding down collection costs.

 

Upcoming Webinars

 In a free webcast by The Office of Adolescent Health, hear from Dr. Robert W. Blum, the William H. Gates Sr. Chair of the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an expert in adolescent health and teen pregnancy, about how teen pregnancy outcomes in the United States compare globally, and what we can learn from teen pregnancy prevention efforts abroad. Dr. Blum will also answer some commonly asked questions concerning teen pregnancy prevention. This webcast will kick off a month of activities by OAH for its third annual recognition of National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month.

A Global Look at Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Strategies for Success
Thursday, May 2nd, 2:00 - 3:00pm EST
Registration


For more on the current state of teen pregnancy in the United States, read this post
by Dr. Elizabeth Wildsmith, a senior research scientist at Child Trends.

Early Childhood Data: Building a Strong Foundation
States are at a critical juncture for incorporating new data practices and moving toward the development of comprehensive early childhood data systems. Two upcoming webinars (the last in a series of three) will provide an orientation to a new set of tools designed by the Quality Initiatives Research and Evaluation Consortium (INQUIRE) to support the development of high quality early childhood data:

Data Management: Developing Data Governance Structures - Provides an overview of the need for and benefits of building strong data governance and system-wide data management policies and practices, using the example of QRIS.
Monday, May 6th, 2:00 - 3:30pm EST
Registration

Data Management: Best Practices for Producing High-Quality Data
- Presents an overview of best practices that promote data integrity and ensure that high-quality data are available for reporting, monitoring, and evaluation.
Thursday, May 16th, 2:00 - 3:30pm EST
Registration 

Child Trends on the Road

Dr. Mindy Scott, a senior research scientist,  is at a press conference in Peru this week, to mark the release of the World Family Map in Spanish. The Map was released in English early this year.

This week, Zakia Redd, a senior research scientist, heads to Stanford University, to the Education Writers Association's National Seminar, as part of a panel on how states are implementing expanded learning, and how reporters can judge its effectiveness. Ms. Redd will speak to what the research says-and doesn't say-about expanded learning.

 

                                                                                                                           

 

Subscribe to Trend Lines, Child Trends' blog,

and read our latest post, 
Teenage Pregnancy Prevention: Finding Some Common Ground

 

                                                                                                                            

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